Monroe

Just found some additional news out today (July 26) about "Sharknado" ... this SyFy TV movie is going to play for one showing in more than 200 select movie theaters for a midnight showing on Friday August 2nd ... chance to see it on the big screen. I can't say that I ever remember a TV movie going to a big screen theater ... it could have happened but I don't know. Now they are saying it has become an immediate worldwide sensation, generating nearly 5,000 tweets a minute. Amazing ... EXCLUSIVE MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF SYFY’S GLOBAL SENSATION SHARKNADO GIVES FANS BIG SCREEN EXPERIENCE FOR ONLY ONE NIGHT 'Sharknado' to Screen in Movie Theaters at Midnight on Friday, August 2 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/07/26/sharknado-to-screen-in-movie-theaters-at-midnight-on-friday-august-2/194172/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tvbythenumbers+%28TVbytheNumbers%29 NCM® Fathom Events and The Asylum Present the Syfy Instant Cult Classic in Select Movie Theaters on Friday, August 2 NEW YORK – July 26, 2013 – Up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s a…shark! A super-sized storm sucks sharks from the ocean and hurls them onto land in the Syfy cult classic Sharknado, presented for one night in select movie theaters for a special Midnight showing by NCM Fathom Events and The Asylum on Friday, August 2 (starting at 12:05 a.m. local time). Sharknado premiered on Syfy on July 11, becoming an immediate worldwide sensation, generating nearly 5,000 tweets a minute. Sharknado 2 will premiere on Syfy in July 2014. Tickets for Sharknado are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. Sharknado appears on the big screen in more than 200 select movie theaters through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the NCM Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change). “’Sharknado’ was an instant hit with fans – and celebrities – from the moment they first saw it, creating a social media phenomenon on July 11 with nearly 400,000 social mentions,” said Shelly Maxwell, executive vice president for NCM Fathom Events. “Imagine sharks invading from the skies on 40-foot screens in movie theaters nationwide. Next week’s special midnight showing is a first for Fathom and will answer the age-old question: Who knew sharks could fly?” Entertainment Weekly described it as “… an hour-and-a-half of ridiculous, slapstick, theatrical, scientifically-impossible fun” and New York Daily News said “’Sharknado’ is bad to the bone. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. If you’re a fan of low-budget horror movies and you miss it, you will regret it for the rest of your life.” ...

Philipitous ... am in agreement with 5eraph when he says "Reading along with interest like me, I'd imagine." ... been reading as others are doing. Last December (2012) I started a topic in the XP forum ... "Installing New Windows XP Updates" and got some interesting replies. My thread is now back in history on Page 6 these days. CharlotteTheHarlot posted a real nice reply that mentioned some interesting things: CharlotteTheHarlot ... Posted 18 December 2012 - 06:57 AM Purely out of chance, the machine I am on has evolved into the front-facing sacrificial lamb to the evil gods of internet malfeasance. Windows Update is disabled. I haven't even manually ran the update scan in over two years. It is of course behind a router. The Windows Firewall is running ( the XP inbound-only firewall ) but I'd bet I could even kill that without consequence. I am using Opera 99% of the time (version 11.something ), and Firefox for the odd pages and things that cause hiccups. MSIE is very rarely used. And here is the kicker ... It is an Administrator account. ~shudder~ There is no anti-virus ( except for on-demand scan of folders and drives now and then, not because I am infected, but for the odd client devices I am working with ). This computer visits the darkest, deepest and most dangerous corners of the web too. No bull. No drive-by scripts have ever compromised it. No local files have caused problems and believe me I test a whole lot of crap. Try as I may, I cannot think of something that a critical Windows Update would need to fix as far as security that would affect anything positively. I would expect things might get broken by allowing Microsoft to just keep patching system files over and over again though. I always wondered how an ever-changing codebase can be considered "stable" but that's just me I guess. Anyway. I have always maintained that a properly configured Router + Opera is the first line of protection. It definitely works for me. However, I have a never-ending stream of infected computers being brought in for repair and it is always one or both of those ( Router + Opera ) that are missing. They always have Windows Updates on automatic so they are up-to-date, and they have a variety of realtime antivirus programs ( murdering the performance naturally ). Yet still they show up in various states of disarray. Go figure. If you have a spare computer ( or even a HDD with space for a clone of your OS ) just try it. ......... my thread from Dec ... Installing New Windows XP Updates http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/160578-installing-new-windows-xp-updates/ ...

This just broke at the Drudge Report over the last few hours ... just a quick post since there was talk earlier of government spying in this thread. Drudge Report FEDS DEMAND WEB FIRMS TURN OVER PASSWORDS http://www.drudgereport.com/ ... at this time this is the main "headline" story at the Drudge Report and it may stay that way for several hours until something else starts to trend so the actual article link is below. the actual article ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57595529-38/feds-tell-web-firms-to-turn-over-user-account-passwords/ Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form. The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed. If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused. "I've certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We push back." A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies "really heavily scrutinize" these requests, the person said. "There's a lot of 'over my dead body.'" Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts. ... more at the link

Yes, you can't take the movie too serious but it seemed to strike something with the viewers. As one person said, fish including sharks are going to only have one mission ... to get back into the ocean or water as soon as possible and not gobling down humans but it's a fun movie. Just 3 - 4 days ago SyFy announced a sequel in 2014 ... Sharknado sequel to premiere in 2014 Sharknado 2,' set in New York City, greenlit by SyFy Channel In the wake of the massive social media success of the first 'Sharknado,' the network announced a sequel set to air in 2014. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sharknado-2-set-new-york-city-greenlit-syfy-channel-article-1.1401052 Just when you thought it was safe to go back on Water Street ... The toothy breakout stars of the SyFy Channel’s “Sharknado” will be returning in a sequel to last week’s monster hit -- and the forecast calls for the next storm to touch down in New York City. Though the project is not even at the script stage yet, the network greenlit “Sharknado 2” based on the social media whirlwind the original made-for-TV film inspired and the premise of dumping big fish on the Big Apple. ...

Since K-Meleon browser was mentioned in an earlier post, I thought I would make mention of a slightly newer version that JamesD released on July 3rd ... K-Meleon 1.6.0 Beta 2.6 He has been working as best he can on improving a few things ... I am no longer on Windows 98SE but when I made the move to XP last year I also had KernelEx installed at that time and I think you may need to have KernelEx installed for the KM 1.6.0 versions ... but I can't say for sure 100%. Just thought I'd mention it here for anyone wanting to experiment ... it works great on most web sites with XP and JamesD himself lists Win 7 (32 bit) as his OS. I was mostly using K-Meleon with Windows 98SE and probably version K-Meleon 1.6.0 Beta 2.5 at that time along with K-Meleon 1.5.4 with JavaScript turned off ... I also use Proxomitron and sometimes have to put it on "Bypass" ... most of the time everything works OK with K-Meleon with no adjustments to JavaScript and Proxomitron but I know when I go to a few certain sites that I have to change a setting or two. I'm sorry but I can't be sure this slightly newer version will work with Windows 98SE but it may work ... for anyone wanting to give it a try. http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?1,125050,page=2 Re: Is K-Meleon Dead? Posted by: JamesD Date: July 03, 2013 06:45PM K-Meleon 1.6.0 Beta 2.6 I have collected some new pieces and put them together as a new beta release for K-Meleon 1.6.0. The release is a 7-Zip so users can install in two ways. If you wish to have your profile in the same folder tree as the program, then you only have to make a folder, extract the files in 7z to that folder and run the executable named k-meleon. If you need your profile to be in your %APPDATA% folder then follow the same steps except prior to running k-meleon.exe you should delete the file named profile.ini which has 0 bytes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1522294/K-Meleon1.6.0_Beta2dot6_en-US.7z K-Meleon 1.6.0 beta 2.6 Win 7 (32 bit) ... Add ... if you want K-Meleon to look more like IE 6 then change it to the Klassic skin under the Edit tab - Preferences ... if you would like to have a lighthouse throbber then this one was made for me by disrupted in Oct 2010 ... you just replace the regular KM throbber in the Klassic skin folder or whatever skin you want to use ... the default skin is more modern but I prefer the older Klassic skin look or the older IE 6 look ... once you get all the settings adjusted to your liking ... it took me awhile to figure some settings out with help from the KM forum. As you progress, save the KM folder somewhere till you get the final product that you like and save that somewhere to add to other computers in the future, if you want to. Lighthouse throbber ... http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?10,110908 ...

"Or maybe I've watched tooo many disaster movies" ... that can be a problem, since I speak from experience ... the last several years it's been zombie movies for me. I know this is off topic but this a "general" discussion group but I was amazed at the ratings for the new SyFy movie "Sharknado" ... it first played on July 11 and was a hit on cable and then it played again on July 18th and the ratings jumped another 38% ... I did get to see it. Syfy's 'Sharknado' Mania Continues as Encore Telecast July 18 Leaps 38 Percent in Total Viewers http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/07/19/syfys-sharknado-mania-continues-as-encore-telecast-july-18-leaps-38-percent-in-total-viewers/192850/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tvbythenumbers+%28TVbytheNumbers%29 SYFY’S SHARKNADO MANIA CONTINUES AS ENCORE TELECAST JULY 18 LEAPS 38 PERCENT IN TOTAL VIEWERS #1 MOST TWEETED PROGRAM ON CABLE ALL-DAY SHARKATHON MOVIE FESTIVAL SATURDAY, JULY 27 NEW YORK – July 19, 2013 – The Sharknado Feeding Frenzy continued on Syfy when the encore telecast on July 18 jumped 38 percent in total viewers, 29 percent in Adults 25-54 and 24 percent in Adults 18-49 versus the premiere broadcast on July 11. The movie also delivered 313K Adults 18-34, up 50 percent from the premiere and the most watched original movie in that demographic since Zombie Apocalypse in October 2011. From 7-9PM (ET/PT), Sharknado averaged 1.9 million total viewers, 797K Adults 25-54 and 701K Adults 18-49. Fueling the unprecedented social media buzz, the movie was the #1 most tweeted program on cable Thursday night (excluding sports and special events). Keeping up the Shark-Mentum, Syfy will repeat Sharknado Saturday, July 27 at 9PM as part of an all-day Sharkathon movie festival from 9AM-5AM that will include such classics as Sharktopus, Two-Headed Shark Attack and Swamp Shark. Sharknado will also air on Saturday, August 22 at 7PM, leading into the Original Movie Ghost Shark, about a great white shark, tortured and killed by a fisherman, who returns as an unfriendly ghost to exact vengeance on the human race. The movie stars Mackenzie Postman and Richard Moll. ... so many of the SyFy films are just so-so these days with not so good digital effects but this wasn't bad. Just thought I'd make a mention for anyone into disaster films. That's a very good comparision to Michael Crichton ... he's missed.

It just hit me about this new virus ... if it was found off the coast of Chile then that's salt water and a pond in Australia would be fresh water ... a very versatile virus.

I guess they now have another reason to take away guns ... FAA Warns Public Against Shooting Guns at Drones http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/19/faa-warns-public-against-shooting-guns-at-drones/ People who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday. The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drones. The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation's airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns. A drone "hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air," the statement said. "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane." Under the proposed ordinance, Deer Trail would grant hunting permits to shoot drones. The permits would cost $25 each. The town would also encourage drone hunting by awarding $100 to anyone who presents a valid hunting license and identifiable pieces of a drone that has been shot down. ... This just gets better and better ... a hunting permit to shoot down drones, I kinda like the idea ... if the Three Stooges were still here, this would be a great movie short ... go duck hunting and bring down a drone! I still think a "back yard" model rocket missle defense would work or perhaps rocket type fireworks could be modified in some way to not only "light up the sky" but bring down a drone as a bonus !!! ...

Thought this was interesting ... probably not much of a discussion topic but we can be greatful that it appears to be "harmless" unless it might mutate or "join up" with something more deadly one day. Never-before-seen GIANT virus found that's so unusual it may have come from Mars http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2370100/Scientists-GIANT-Pandoravirus-come-alien-planet.html Scientists have found a new virus thought to be the biggest ever seen on Earth. The virus, dubbed Pandoravirus, is one micrometre big - up to ten times the size of other viruses - and only six per cent of its genes resemble anything seen on Earth before. Many traditional viruses range in size from around 10 nanometres (nm) to around 500nm. The Pandoravirus is around one micrometre big and there are 1,000nm in a micrometre. This means the Pandoravirus is big enough to be seen under the most basic microscopes. Pandoravirus lives underwater and was found off the coast of Chile and in a pond in Australia. They took sediment samples from the coast off Chile and from a pond in Australia. They took the samples to their laboratory and put them in a solution packed with antibiotics in an attempt to kill any bacteria present. These bacteria-free samples were then exposed to amoebas knowing that if they died, there must be something else in the samples killing them. This proved to be successful and large amounts of Pandoravirus were spawned. When the team studied them they found that their genetic code was twice the size of the Megavirus, which was previously the biggest virus ever found at around 440nm. However, they were in for more of a shock as only six per cent of its genes resembled genes seen before in other organisms on Earth. ... Let's hope it stays harmless ... more info in the article.

Yes, very cool indeed ... this may be what dencorso had in mind when he posted this on 29 May ... Post #41 ... "In the US, as here in Brazil, apartment buildings without elevators are next to non-existant. However, that's not so in Europe, where they are common in the most expensive neighborhoods, even in London, Paris and Milan. So what I do envisage as the probable 1st civillian use of a BigDog would be to be bought by such condominia, to bring up the stairs things, like, say, the packages with the goods just bought from the local supermarket." ... except these could lift heavy items to the roof ... furniture, appliances and such for people near the top of the building. ...

Yes, I had actually read about the super big mosquitoes over a month ago and that they have been around for years but hardly ever seen by most people living in Florida, however this year was expected to be different. Anyway, you dug up a lot more info on them and a mention about the dreaded salt marsh mosquito. That one sounds horrible, if you get bit ... maybe like getting bit by a horse fly. Must be bad for the deer and other living things in the salt marsh. Oh well, yes the "burning drone" either crashed or was shot down as target practice. ...

I would have to agree but having lived in Florida for a time back in the 80's ... there were some pretty large insects around then and they have probably only gotten larger since I left. For instance, this news just broke in June ... Huge Mosquitoes Spotted in Florida http://www.livescience.com/37383-gallinippers-huge-mosquitoes-florida.html Enormous mosquitoes known as gallinippers (or Psorophora ciliata) have been spotted in Florida, according to WKMG, a CBS affiliate. The insects are about 20 times larger than most common mosquitoes. The sighting comes after a warning by the University of Florida that there could be a bumper crop of these mosquitoes this summer. ...

Air Force drone crash closes remote Florida highway http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/18/air-force-drone-crash-causes-officials-to-shut-down-remote-fla-panhandle/?test=latestnews An Air Force drone being tested at a nearby base crashed on takeoff Wednesday near a remote stretch of a Florida Panhandle highway. Officials say no one was injured but the road would be closed into Wednesday night. The Air Force closed Highway 98 west of Panama City and east of Mexico Beach because of possible fires from the crash. Officials said the drone has a limited, 24-hour battery life and would be inactive after the battery depleted. ... the picture shows something burning ... lots of smoke so the battery and drone would "maybe" be inactive before 24 hours had passed ... however, I'm no rocket scientist !!!

Tripredacus ... don't have anything to offer about the heat situation but in your first post I learned about two programs I had never heard of ... from your pictures ... TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.7.2 and CPUID HWMonitor. I have a Pentium M (1.6) IBM Thinkpad with XP Pro but I don't get all the information that you get ... I guess you have more sensors to detect more readings. Still glad to have found out about these two software programs. ...

OK, things are more clear but I may have misunderstood what these "extra" USB updates actually are. When I was still with Windows 98SE, I remember you would ocassionally have a newer USB update in the Windows 98SE forum to add new USB flash drives, cameras and etc ... that's what I thought these additional USB updates for Windows XP after SP3 actually were. I don't have a NVIDIA 680i motherboard installed so I don't think I have any real need for these additional updates ... I just thought these were newer additional USB cameras and such that were added after XP SP3 came out. Perhaps XP doesn't have to be updated like Windows 98SE had to. Still learning things dealing with XP ... thanks again for explaining everything.

OK ... thanks for the additional information ... not sure if I have it all clear but I have some idea where to start to try things out.

I don't understand how to add these "extra" USB functional patches for Win XP after SP3 posted by dencorso. At pointertovoid's thread - "USB functional patches for Win2000 after SP4 and R1" he says the following: The table is plain text to help you copy it. In order to display your copy properly, you'll need a fixed width font (like Courier new) where you paste it, for instance an Html document or a text editor (Metapad does it). I never change any fonts in my XP setup and don't understand completely what steps I should be doing and how to enter everything into my XP setup or exactly where it is supposed to be ... I'm thinking probably the .ini file but I don't know for sure. Can someone tell me in simple "novice" terms how to add the extra USB patches as posted below from dencorso's post. -----------------XP-SP3----948101v3-949764-945436-949033-968764-969238-2828030-2807986--========================================================================================usbccgp.sys-----2600.5512-------------------5585----------------------------------------usbehci.sys-----2600.5512--------------------------5587---5778---5825---6368------------usbohci.sys-----2600.5512----5550-------------------------------------------------------usbuhci.sys-----2600.5512-----------------------------------------------6368------------usbport.sys-----2600.5512------------5551-----------------5778----------6368------------usb8023.sys-----2600.5512--------------------------------------------------------6532---usb8023x.sys----2600.5512--------------------------------------------------------6532---========================================================================================---------------------------948101v3-949764-945436-949033-968764-969238-2828030-2807986--thanks ...

Dry Cleaner Drone Delivers Clothes to Customers http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/the-scene/Dry-Cleaning-Drone-Delivering-Clothes-to-Customers-214736141.html A freshly laundered shirt, covered in plastic, flaps in the wind as it takes flight from in front of Manayunk Cleaners in Philadelphia. It wasn’t picked up by a breeze, though, rather a remote-controlled drone, which ferries the shirt across the sky on a delivery run to a nearby customer. “I’m all about technology and I see a lot of these cleaners, it’s so old school. You come in…and you just pick it up. I needed to spice things up,” says Manayunk Cleaners owner Harout Vartanian. ...

MHz ... thanks for the info on some other things to check on my XP installation. I can experiment since I have an image backup just made a few days ago. submix8c ... not sure if the question was for me or not, I guess so. I just came across the little program and decided to post about it. The program from NirSoft seems to be better with more information provided. I have downloaded it ... I am familiar with NirSoft software but I missed that one. Always good to have some of these programs handy. Thanks for mentioning it, maybe others will have use for it also. ...

Well now there is a mystery ... I decided this morning to go to the MS update site and run another check to see what might turn up. Now the KB2839229 update is listed as the "only" update that still needs to be downloaded and installed on my setup. I know it was not on that list of updates over the weekend but on Monday morning (today) it shows up as still required. I am also puzzled about the download size ... at the MS update site it is listed as 331 KB in size ... Security Update for Windows XP (KB2839229) Typical download size: 331 KB , 1 minute however, when I actually go get the download myself from MS to save, the download size is 2.2 MB ... Date Published: 06/10/2013 Version: 2839229 File name: WindowsXP-KB2839229-x86-ENU.exe File size: 2.2 MB So I don't know ... it's not there to download one day and the next day it's there ... I did that update check three times over the weekend and it was not there. Any idea why the file size difference? I guess it was all a false alarm unless we hear something different. ... thanks

OK ... I only started searching information on the KB2839229 update after it dropped off my earlier list of required June updates. Ten days ago I had 8 listed updates and now there are only 7 listed updates with KB2839229 being the update that disappeared or dropped off my list. My last MS updates that were installed were the March 2013 updates ... so my June update list includes Apr, May and June updates. Well, I wasn't questioning what you posted earlier, just wondering if there might be a problem with that particular update. Not going to worry about it ... I decided to install the 7 updates today and will see what the July updates are going to be. ...

submix8c ... yes that's the way I get my updates to download and save to a DVD ... in case I might want them someday when XP is officially dropped. I usually have AutoUpdates turned off in Services but turn it on when I go to the M$ update site and then hit the Custom button and see what new updates are available or required for my XP setup. Then I take the KB number and put that into Google as "KB----------- XP download" ... I get the M$ download that way and burn all the updates for that month to my M$ Update DVD ... the KB2839229 was in the list of updates when I did that around 10 days ago ... but yesterday and doing a double check today, the KB2839229 update is no longer showing up as a required download for my computer. ...

submix8c ... there isn't much information currently floating around about KB2839229 possibly being a bad update except for what I posted earlier and the one mention was in Chinese with a Google translate. Read your links and that's basically what dencorso said earlier about the update from 12 February 2013 (KB2799494) being superceded by KB2839229. Have to see what dencorso might have to say or anyone else if they find some information. As I said in my last post ... I am no expert with M$ updates but when there is a bad update released does not M$ put a statement out warning people who might already have it installed or do they just keep quiet about it? ... bad publicity and all that ... I would imagine they would pull it from the update site immediately and then do a fixed new release. ...

dencorso ... the KB2839229 update (June 2013) that you mentioned in an earlier post may be a bad update that has been pulled by M$. I checked the M$ updates again this morning and it no longer shows up on the list of required updates for my setup. When I downloaded all the updates earlier to save, the KB2839229 was included but I no longer see it listed today. Perhaps someone else can verify this. I have found a few mentions of people having several problems with XP after the update has been installed. I don't apply most of the updates automatically anymore ... stopped in March but I still save all of them by the month in case I might want to apply them at sometime in the future. Perhaps you or someone else can verify that the KB2839229 is bad. I am no expert on M$ updates. 1st Search Find: Update KB2839229 downloads and installs but I'm repeatedly asked to install it On Windows XP, Windows Update notified me to download KB283929. It appeared to download normally; when it asked me to install, it appeared to install and I got the quot;installation complete!quot; notice. Within a minute or two, the quot;Updates are ready for your computerquot; icon reappeared asking me to download the same Update. I have completely shut down the computer 4 or 5 times over the past 2 days, but this has continued. (I did try to download and install 3 or 4 times, just in case.) Reply: I heard that this update has had an error, causing many XP/Win7 users to have BS (bluescreen) upon startup, and the system could not enter. Best not to update this first. ---------------------------------------------- 2nd Search Find: Never Ending Windows Update http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1824953 I am running XP home on my notebook and recently there was an update that shows it was downloaded and installed, then 5 seconds later the yellow shield pops and tells me I have an update waiting. I've googled this for hours and none of the advice I've read and tried has worked so far. I cannot make this thing stop. It happened before a few months ago and I simply told Windows Update to ignore it and then it came back and even though its still listed in the ignored updates, it is still trying to download and install. I can't make it stop. I've read that it has to do with .NET Framework, so I followed a lot of different advice, including uninstalling it, downloading the latest version directly from Microsoft Download site yet that still hasn't worked. I've attempted to use Microsoft FixIt, and everytime I do, it tells me I need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed...I DO...I HAVE 4.0 NOW AND THE (*$*%%^**& THING STILL WON'T WORK!!! Does anybody have a solid correction for this nightmare?! The download in question is KB2839229. Reply: There's a page that I found that's in Chinese and I used Google translate in Firefox to translate the page. They recommend that you don't install the June patch because of a design flaw in the patch. Kingsoft Security also causes problems with this patch unless it's got the latest update. Some have reported BSODs upon reboot after installing the patch. What the Chinese page recommends you do is boot into safe mode, go into Remove Programs, select the patch and uninstall it. As far as the Microsoft "FixIt", did you run the one for Windows Update? I run XP Pro on my Dell Precision M70. When it comes to Update Tuesday, I don't rely on Windows Update. Instead, I use IE and go to the Microsoft Update site and select "Custom" from the two choices. I get a list of High Priority updates, Optional Updates and Hardware Updates that I can select on an individual basis and either choose to install them OR select "Do Not Show This Update Again". Also, I've got Automatic Updates set to notify me when updates are ready but don't download or install them. I downloaded and installed the patch and didn't have any problems. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. But, hopefully, the above suggestions may help. ...

Found this little program a couple of weeks ago for XP updates. It's a program to remove MS update backup files in the system, if you need to do so ... it also says it can actually remove a bad update, I have not tried that. However, I like to use it just to see what updates are installed. It will list the updates along with the date they were installed. I find it quicker to use than going into Control Panel / Add - Remove to check the installed updates. It's very small and very fast. As usual, I mention it here for anyone (like myself) that never heard of it and might like to try it out. Windows XP Update Remover http://windows-xp-update-remover.software.informer.com/ Publisher's description Windows XP Update Remover provides a quick and easy way to delete the backup files left behind after every Windows update and reclaim valuable disk space. It can also remove Windows updates that appear to be causing trouble. Whenever Windows Update runs to install security fixes and other updates to your system, it creates a folder within the Windows folder containing all the files replaced during the update. ...